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Emmanuel Macron's Las Vegas Event Being Probed for Favoritism

The current French president, Emmanuel Macron, was previously a government minister. In 2016, while holding the position of economy minister under Francois Hollande, he traveled to the Consumer Electronics Show in the United States of America. The show took place in Las Vegas, Nevada. Now, and event held while he was there is being probed after allegations of favoritism.

The event that is being looked into was a celebration held in honor of Macron. The event was organized by a public relations and advertising group called Havas. It is the selection of this group for the job that is now being called into question as it potentially infringed on tender rules for public contracts. That is because members of Macron’s economy ministry colleagues previously worked at that company. That includes his current strategic advisor.

Business France arranged for the event to occur. It cost approximately €400,000. Muriel Pénicaud, Macron’s current labor minister, was the head of Business France at the time. Macron’s aides have stated that he was not personally involved in organizing the event. That has been disputed by an inside source involved in the inquiry who stated that Macron’s team pressured the organizers to create an event that would improve his image in anticipation of his presidential candidacy.

This probe comes on the heels of an inquiry into potential nepotism that involved the questioning of Richard Ferrand, Macron’s campaign manager, for 7 hours. He is accused of showing favoritism to his common-law wife in relation to a health insurance fund.

The offices of both Havas and Business France have been raided by police. An audit has shown that there was no contract or bill for the 2016 event. Pénicaud has stated that she is holding an internal inquiring in order to figure out who is responsible for what occurred. The official probe has not named any suspects.